Brewington Hardaway Earns Grandmaster Title, 2nd African American GM In History

Two and a half decades after GM Maurice Ashley became the first African American grandmaster, GM-elect Brewington Hardaway has climbed to the top of the mountain. Born in the Bronx, New York, 15-year-old Hardaway has completed the requirements to become the second African American grandmaster in history—his father is African American and his mother is Japanese. Ashley was born in Jamaica and achieved the title at the age of 33, but also grew up in New York.

Hardaway crossed the 2500-rating requirement by winning his game in round four of the NY Fall Invitational GM A (a tournament still in progress). The title will not officially be conferred until it is approved at the next FIDE Congress. He currently leads the round-robin after four rounds—and crossing 2500 once in the middle of the event is enough for the rating requirement. He earned his last norm (of three needed) in September.

[Updated November 12, 2024:] Hardaway completed the tournament in shared first on 6/9 with GM Pavel Teclaf. The image below has been updated to reflect the final standings. Note that IM Farai Mandizha was replaced with IM Levy Rozman during the event.

NY Fall Invitational GM A | Final Standings

After a draw in round one against IM Isik Can, Hardaway won his next three games, against IM Alexander Kaliksteyn, IM Justus Williams, and finally IM Kyron Griffith. The three consecutive wins were enough for him to gain the last 10 points he needed to reach 2500 on the dot. He already did the harder work in Barcelona in August, when he earned his third GM norm and gained 18.6 rating points.

In the game that pushed him over the line, he patiently squeezed out an endgame with a queen against two rooks. Applying the endgame maxim of "Do Not Hurry," the GM-elect combined the threat of pushing his d-pawn with a kingside attack to earn the full point. 

[Added on November 12, 2024:] He wrote to Chess.com, "Before the game I did know that a win would get me over 2500, but I tried not to think about it much. I only started to think about it near the end of the game when I was confident that I was going to win."

Hardaway also shared what this achievement meant for him:

It really means a lot to me to achieve the grandmaster title since it is something every chess player dreams of and, despite many setbacks, I finally persevered and it feels amazing. Now that I have completed this goal, I feel a sense of relief, but also a desire to keep on improving to the highest level.

Now that I have completed this goal, I feel a sense of relief, but also a desire to keep on improving to the highest level

—Brewington Hardaway

I recently just finished playing in the NYC Fall GM Norm Invitational and ended with 6/9 gaining 8.9 FIDE Rating Points with a 2565 performance. The important thing is that after 4 rounds I had a live rating of 2500.4 which means that I am now a Grandmaster-Elect! pic.twitter.com/WKaHLWvcmR

— Brewington Hardaway (@IMBrewChess) November 12, 2024

The young talent has always been steadily rising. His rating before the pandemic, four years ago, was 1907. You can see the horizontal line below, during the year that he didn't play, but his rating shot up after that. Note that the image doesn't contain his last tournament yet because it's ongoing.

Ashley is pleased for Hardaway but is also not surprised: "I think it's fantastic and a step in the right direction. Brewington is sort of a protege of mine, so he texted me the news right after it happened. We're all cheering, we're happy. I actually told him to quickly refocus because the tournament is ongoing." There are nine rounds in total.

However, Ashley also pointed out that this isn't the end of the road by any means. There is still more to do: 

I had no doubt that he would do it, and there are greater things to come for him. I think the GM title is nice, but the lack of African-American representation at the highest level of chess is still an ongoing issue. Getting the GM title is only one step in the right direction. 

I had no doubt that he would do it, and there are greater things to come for him. 

—Maurice Ashley

As for why it took so long for the U.S. to see its second African American grandmaster, Ashley advised, "The conditions that led to this [long wait] remain. There's still a lack of resources for young kids in the African American community, and there's a lack of focus on making sure that the talented Black kids with aspirations can succeed and excel. The timing is pretty interesting because I'm moving forward very strongly with my own initiatives, trying to make this a more normal reality, to make it a consistent occurrence."

Hardaway started learning chess in kindergarten when his older sister joined the chess club at their school—although he was expected to do his homework or draw in the back of the room, he watched the lessons and eventually started solving the puzzles. He beat the chess coach, Chris Johnson, an expert-level player, in first grade and won the K-1 State Championship. "He's going to be a grandmaster," Johnson remembers telling Hardaway's mother. "He's going to be at the top of the food chain in every grade that he's in."

Johnson knew that Hardaway had potential, telling Chess.com, "I knew from the beginning that he had something different than everybody else." He was a fast learner, Johnson explained, "He never forgot anything I showed him. I only had to show him one time." Finally, he added that teaching Hardaway pushed him to improve his own chess and pedagogy: “He made me a better chess player and a coach too because I’d be sitting at two in the morning looking for something to teach him.”

I knew from the beginning that he had something different than everybody else.

—Chris Johnson, first chess coach

He became a national master at the age of 10. In September 2021, he won the U12 section of XXXI Pan American Youth Chess Festival and went on to become both the seventh-grade champion at the 2021 K-12 Grade Championships and co-champion at the 2022 National Middle School (K-8) Championship.

Once a ChessKid star, he was the co-host of his own ChessKid streaming show, "FunMasterMike and the Brewmaster" and regularly accepted game challenges on the site. His article "How I Got Started In Chess: BrewMaster" is a joy to read and provides insights into how success in chess excites him.